Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter is scheduled to stand trial in September for allegedly using $250,000 in campaign money for personal expenses, and in a Monday court filing, federal prosecutors accused him of spending part of that cash on some decidedly more illicit goings-on than transporting the family’s pet rabbit on an airplane flight: The Justice Department, in a motion to the court seeking to introduce evidence, says that the married California congressman used campaign money to “pursue a series of intimate personal relationships” with at least five different women.
During his first term back in 2009, prosecutors charge, Hunter began having an affair with a lobbyist and used his campaign account to pay for drinks, food, and trips together. One of these expenditures included a “’double date' road trip” to Virginia Beach with another couple, which included an unnamed fellow congressman, where Hunter used campaign funds to purchase drinks and a hotel room. The next month, Hunter and that same date attended a concert by the country singer Jack Ingram, where the Hunter campaign paid for “$121 in campaign funds on beer, nachos, and wings.”
Prosecutors also say that in 2015, Hunter used his war chest to pay for Uber trips to and from the home of another lobbyist where the two “engaged in intimate personal activities unrelated to Hunter’s congressional campaign or duties as a member of Congress.” Prosecutors say that the following year, Hunter made similar purchases while he had an affair with a third lobbyist.
That’s not all. In 2015, Hunter’s campaign also allegedly paid for the congressman’s cocktails with a House leadership aide he ended up spending the night with—and for the Uber ride back to his office the following morning. As for Hunter’s fifth dalliance, the Justice Department’s motion also alleges that Hunter used campaign funds to finance his relationship with one of his own aides.
Hunter and his wife, Margaret Hunter, were both indicted together last year. The congressman quickly sought to blame his wife for any improper campaign expenditures, telling a TV audience that she “was also the campaign manager, so whatever she did that'll be looked at too, I'm sure.”
Last week, Margaret Hunter pleaded guilty to conspiring with her husband to “knowingly and willingly convert campaign funds for personal use.” In her plea deal with prosecutors, Hunter agreed to provide “substantial assistance to the United States in the investigation and prosecution of others” and “to tell everything (she) knows about every person involved.” Apparently, there are quite a few such people.
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